Tasteless
by Love From A Muggle
Summary: Argus Filch at his darkest hour will there be any hope for him? How did he become the one no one likes? Taken right after the war in the seventh book.Filch/Pince One Shot: Complete. There will not be a sequel. IT CONTAINS SUICIDE.


Tasteless.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any Harry Potter characters. J.K. Rowling owns them.

**Written for the Suicide Challenge**

**Author's note: **I've had this idea for a few months now and am now writing it down. It's a very dark story. If you don't want to read it then don't bother. I have other stories that you can check out that are good ones. I did this story for the Suicide Challenge.

The smell of death filled his lungs. He wrinkled his nose in disgust. The battle between good and evil was over. He looked around at his beloved Hogwarts as the moon settled high above the ground. 'It's going to take us a long time to get her looking back to normal.' He thought. Debris and dust covered the once clean castle grounds. He coughed for he had just breathed in the dust. He knew everyone was heading to the Great Hall and that the staff was to round up the dead, but he wanted no part of it. He wanted to go to the shack behind the castle with his dead cat. A spell meant for someone had hit and killed her he found her on the second floor of Hogwarts. He remembered when he first got Mrs. Norris.

_Flashback_

_A young Argus Filch stumbled out of The Hog's Head (an all Wizard pub) and tripped falling face forward on the ground. He grunted to himself and looked at what he tripped on. A small kitten stood alone scared and shaking. He picked up the little kitten._

"_Do you have a home?" He asked. She just purred and smiled at him. _

"_I'm going to take you home. You'll be Mrs. Norris from now on kitty." Filch started walking home to Hogwarts Castle with his new little friend. _

_End Flashback_

"FILCH!" Someone screamed his name. He ignored them and kept walking.

"Are you coming to the castle? McGonagall wants the staff there." He recognized the voice. Rubeus Hagrid the game keeper caught up to him and made him to turn around.

"Argus!" Hagrid bellowed spitting in his face. Wiping away the spit he glared at the care taker.

"I don't want to be any part of it. I'm a bloody SQUIB for crying out loud. How in the hell am I to help? _What is the point? When the world is shrouded in shadows, all that remains is ashes._"He shook his finger at the game keeper. His dead cat swung with every move he made. Argus glared at Hagrid, then walked away. Hagrid looked dumbfounded.

"Fine then, go off an' be alone. Everyone would' wan' you around anyways." Hagrid shouted. Argus got to his shack behind Hogwarts with out any other interruptions. He grabbed his old shovel, and walked four steps from his shack then started digging a grave for his precious cat. When he was done he wiped his brows and leaned on the shovel. Tears stung his eyes, as he stared at the hole in the ground. It felt cruel to bury his beloved feline friend in such a place, but it was right. He brushed the sadness from his face and put his shovel against the back wall of his shack. Going around the shack he sighed before entering.

Standing alone in the threshold of his home he looked around. He hated this shack. It always made him depressed whenever he saw what little he had. Bare walls stared back at him. A small fire place took up most of the back wall. A single log stood alone next to the fire place. He knew he could have moved to another place, but he had no where to go. A pot belly stove stood rusty on another side of the wall. Next to the stove there was a small wooden room with a wooden door where his water supply lived. A small bed made of hay and two worn out blankets faced the stove. He shuffled to the stove and put on a pot of water. As he waited for the water to boil he reflected on his life. '_What do I have to live for? What is left for me now?' _He thought to himself. He had no one left in his family. Well, there was his daughter Leslie Ann, but she NEVER talked to him anymore. She disowned him after he sent her to boarding school all of her life. He heard from her once when she moved to the country in London. She wrote him a letter telling him she'd gotten married and they were to have a baby later on that year, but he'd never meet his grandchild. Leslie never forgave him for sending her off to school.

A single tear fell beneath his eye as he thought of his daughter. Her face came to his mind as he closed his tired, worn out eyes. Long, brown curls falling neatly into place just by her face showed off her bright blue eyes. He wished he'd never send her off to boarding school. But her face reminded her of his wife. His wife with whom had died giving birth to his daughter. He knew that was the reason for sending her off to boarding school because she reminded him so much of his Anna.

The water steamed and the whistle blew letting him know the water was good and hot. Argus stood up and shuffled to the cabinet. Pulling an old mug down from the cupboard, and reaching a bag of tea. He then put the bag in the water and added a little bit of sugar. After the sugar, he reached into his pocket and grabbed a silver flask once given to him by the late Albus Dumbledore. He knew he should have stopped the horrid habit long before now, but poured the whiskey in his drink anyways. The drink was tasteless now, seeing how the whiskey made him lose all sense of taste, but he still liked something to warm his throat.

With his tea ready he sat back down in his chair. Dozing off a little he remembered talks he had with Albus on days he felt really low.

Flashback:

"_I feel like I'm drowning. Drowning in a pool of hopelessness... and I fear I'll never be able to get out. I lose myself, and that scares me." _He said to Dumbledore in his office when a few teens pulled a prank on him.

"When did you start feeling this way?" Dumbledore asked him.

"I don't know. I've always felt this way ever since I got a letter from my daughter."

"I remember when you came in and told me. You said you couldn't hold on much longer to the guilt you had for sending her away. Remember when I said I'd offer to pay for counseling? Argus, the offer still stands. I alone can not help you through this depression. You need help. You can not fight this alone." Half moon spectacles stared at the hopeless man sitting before him. Filch said nothing for a moment which made Dumbledore nervous, and shifted in his chair.

"_I've already asked it of you too many times-I'm beyond help or healing now. I see it, and so do you. _Trust me Albus, I know your offer still stands, but deep down inside I'm just an empty hole that can not be filled." He looked at his longtime friend.

"Are you sure? I can send someone from the ministry right away to your home."

"It's a shack Dumbledore, and _Don't even bother. I've already lost this battle._ I can't even taste anything in food anymore. I can't sleep with out nightmares, I can't even love. Do you know that Irma asked me to date her? I know she loves me, but I fear that I have nothing left in my heart to give anyone anymore. I have nothing to live for. I told her _Just because I'm not strong enough doesn't mean you can't handle it. _She didn't understand. She just wouldn't give up on me till I finally told her to leave me alone." Argus looked at the quiet headmaster.

"I think I'm going to get going now. Your silence has filled me in on everything I need to know." He muttered.

End flash back.

The glass fell to the floor and shattering on the cedar made Filch wake up from his daydream.

"Damn it." He muttered.

Seeing the last cup on the floor made him think of his last attempt for hope. Madam Irma Pince. She was the one who wanted to be with him. Even tried getting him drunk to be with him, but he had already started the habit of drinking way before that and was use to the taste. He knew what was in the drink and pretended to be in love with her. Egging her on would only hurt her more. He knew that, but didn't like what she was doing to him. She told him that she loved him when they were drunk and vice versa, but he didn't mean it. It was just him pretending. He looked back at the cup.

He did not even bother cleaning it up. He left the tea stain the wood. However, he took out his flask and downed the bottle, and then threw it against the wall. He screamed in agony. How he hated his lonesome life. The solitude. If only Anna was still alive. She would be able to save him from what he was about to do next. He walked to the small bed made of hay. Underneath the hay was a long piece of wood that moved at will. He shoved the pathetic excuse of the bed out of the way and lifted up the bed. Then took out a small black box and lifted the lid. Inside was the home to a black revolver. Or a gun as muggles called it. He bought it off a wizard in Knockturn Ally around the time Voldermort was coming to power. He knew it would come in handy some day. The Wizard said it was already loaded for emergencies. He never found out why the wizard was selling it; he didn't bother asking why. Taking the gun out of the box he looked at it in his hands.

"Good bye cruel world." He thought out loud.

* * *

A loud bang was heard through out the Hogwarts castle. Students and teachers started screaming. Professor McGonagall pulled out a chair and stood on it, and then made her voice loud with the wave of her wand.

"ATTENTION. PARENTS PLEASE KEEP YOUR CHILDREN HERE IN THE GREAT HALL WHILE THE STAFF AND MYSELF INVESTIGATES THE NOISE." She said. Making her voice back to normal, she turned to the staff that came before while she was shouting. She then stepped down from the chair and looked at them with a grim look on her face.

"Where is Argus Filch? Has anyone seen him since Voldermort's defeat?"

"Aye! I ran into him on my way to the Great Hall." Hagrid responded.

"Didn't he know he had to help in the Great Hall?" Minerva stated.

"Yeah I told em' but he didn't care. He was waving his dead cat around mumbling something about him being a squib. An' not being able to help."

"Dead cat?" Spoke up a soft voice from behind Hagrid.

"Mrs. Norris' body was found on the second floor." Another teacher replied.

"Minerva, I know who fired the shot. I fear that we're not too late. We must hurry to his shack." Madam Irma Pince had fear in her voice as she rushed out the great hall.

The door to the shack was closed when the teachers arrived. Hagrid pounded on the door.

"FILCH!" He called again for what seemed the millionth time tonight. When he didn't answer, Hagrid barged in and let out a scream. Half the staff crowded inside the small shack while the other half crowded around the shack. Silence replaced the whispers that formed around the shack. A lifeless body lay before them in a pool of his own blood. A weapon lay beside the body.

Irma couldn't stand the silence from outside the shack. She shoved her way through the sea of people.

"What is it? Why is everyone silent?" She asked as she made her way through the threshold. She stood beside Minerva and stared at the floor. She screamed.

"_Please don't go I love and need you!"_ She screamed as she sank to the floor trying to get to the body.

"Get her and take her out of here!" Minerva shouted to Hagrid. Hagrid pulled her up by her shoulders and forced her to walk.

"Come on Irma, he's gone. There's nothing we can do for him now." Hagrid said.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**I know this story's very sad. I had a few tears form in my eyes while I was writing this story, but I wrote it anyways for the suicide challenge. I hope you like it. I'm sorry for making this story sooo dark, but I wanted to finish the challenge. Please review!


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